Trinamul meet caution
after clash

OUR CORRESPONDENT

Dasarath Tirkey

Alipurduar, March 10: Sourav Chakraborty, the working president of the Trinamul Youth Congress, today held a news conference in an Alipurduar lodge to introduce the party’s candidates a day after a similar attempt allegedly ended in a scuffle at the party office.

Yesterday, Chakraborty had to cancel the session because of a fight between two groups of supporters in the Trinamul’s district office in Jalpaiguri.

Chakraborty today denied reports that party workers had clashed in the office over the importance given to newcomers such as Dasarath Tirkey and Ananta Deb Adhikari, overlooking veterans.

Both Tirkey and Adhikari have switched to Trinamul from the RSP after the Rajya Sabha elections in which both voted Trinamul.

Asked about the fight, Chakraborty said: “We are confident of winning both Lok Sabha seats (Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri) in the district and Kumargram Assembly seat (for which a bypoll is scheduled). Nothing happened in Jalpaiguri yesterday and the media is unnecessarily making it a big issue. Today, we started our campaign from Kumargram where Dasarath Tirkey (the candidate for Alipurduar) attended a meeting.”

At Chakraborty’s meeting, around 100 youths loyal to him were present. A handful of police personnel were also seen.

Tirkey and Joachim Buxla, the Trinamul candidate for Kumargram Assembly bypoll, were introduced by the Trinamul youth leader.

Yesterday, Chakraborty had scheduled a news conference in the party office along with Tirkey, Jalpaiguri Lok Sabha candidate Bijoy Bhusan Burman, and Mainaguri Assembly bypoll nominee Ananta Deb Adhikari. But the meeting turned violent when some raised questions about the replacement of Jalpaiguri Sadar block president, Haradhan Sarkar, with Netai Kar. Sarkar has been in Trinamul for over a decade, Kar joined the party recently.

The party supporters were also angry that Tirkey and Adhikari were fielded instead of party leaders who had worked for the organisation in north Bengal.